Christygirl's new Leemar 180 build!

solitude127 said:
Nice progress.
I have my controller mounted on the side of my tank. I really like the fact that I don't have to bend over to look/adjust the controller.
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Mike, Thanks... I have the controller on the side of my 90 and I like it.... I will probably do the same thing unless I build a canopy.

jeffreylam1132 said:
Man, this project maybe slow but it is well planned, organized and has a very clean look. Good job, Randy! I really like the idea of mounting the apex display flush on the canopy. It'll look really nice and clean. Just make sure to seal it on the backside so no moisture or salt creep can damage it.
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Jeffrey, thanks. It is killing me that I have had my tank for 2 weeks now. I bought my pump, it is back ordered.... Plumbing. another issue. Everywhere I go, the schedule 80 is just beat to heck. I really want to do this tank nice.... So, for now I go slow!

ngvu1 said:
Too nice and much work for a stand. You might not want to put anything, yes the fish tank, on top of the stand after finishing it :-)

That stand looks like a high end piece of furniture by itself
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NGVU1, This stand becomes more than a stand for my tank.... it will actually be a sort of bar for entertaining around. The stand will continue through the fireplace and around to a whiskey bar with storage and a desk..... That portion will take a while. But, most of all, thanks for the compliment!
 
I was just drooling over your tank again and came accord the Q you asked about your drain. If flowing less than 1000 gph, 1" pipe is fine. With 1' of vertical drop, 1" pipe will flow ~1000gph. With the 2' of vertical drop, 1.5" will flow >3500gph. And I speak from experience! I have a 180 now and was running about 1000 gph thru it. I use the bean and have all 1.5" plumbing. I wanted to scale back flow to what my skimmer was flowing, which was about 400gph. So I switched to about 500 gph thru over flow. I was having problems with the siphoning kicking in. I've read the whole bean thread. So I know most of the tricks to get this drain to work right. My flow was so little for the pipes, that it was having trouble purging all the air from the siphon. I took the gate valve down to see how much it was open and it was open about 1/8". So I thru my other pump on and everything is fine again. So flow should dictate the size of pipe to use. Definitely stay with 1.5" for all the rest.
 
reefermad619 said:
I was just drooling over your tank again and came accord the Q you asked about your drain. If flowing less than 1000 gph, 1" pipe is fine. With 1' of vertical drop, 1" pipe will flow ~1000gph. With the 2' of vertical drop, 1.5" will flow >3500gph. And I speak from experience! I have a 180 now and was running about 1000 gph thru it. I use the bean and have all 1.5" plumbing. I wanted to scale back flow to what my skimmer was flowing, which was about 400gph. So I switched to about 500 gph thru over flow. I was having problems with the siphoning kicking in. I've read the whole bean thread. So I know most of the tricks to get this drain to work right. My flow was so little for the pipes, that it was having trouble purging all the air from the siphon. I took the gate valve down to see how much it was open and it was open about 1/8". So I thru my other pump on and everything is fine again. So flow should dictate the size of pipe to use. Definitely stay with 1.5" for all the rest.
Click to expand...

Reefer,
I did decide to go 1 1/2" drains. I bought the Diablo DC10500 pump which has adjustable flow rates.

I am trying now to decide whether or not to go all schedule 80 or just go with schedule 40. The 80 looks cool, is stronger, harder to find, but much more expensive. The 40 is easy to get and I can paint it to be any color I want.....
 
christygirl said:
Reefer,
I did decide to go 1 1/2" drains. I bought the Diablo DC10500 pump which has adjustable flow rates.

I am trying now to decide whether or not to go all schedule 80 or just go with schedule 40. The 80 looks cool, is stronger, harder to find, but much more expensive. The 40 is easy to get and I can paint it to be any color I want.....
Click to expand...


There are some places that sell grey colored sch 40. Might save you some time and money.
 
Randy I plumbed my tank with sch 80 and yes it looks cooler but you how often are you going to look at it? Everardo told me about the irrigation supply off 91 across from home depot. They had all my fittings there. They carry a good inventory of 1 inch and 1.5
You also have to buy pipe 10 feet at a time or pay outrages cost per foot

I have some 1 inch fittings and a couple 3/4 if you want them....free lmk
(15 fittings total)
 
mpoletti said:
There are some places that sell grey colored sch 40. Might save you some time and money.
Click to expand...
Mark,
Interesting. I grew up in landscaping and have never seen that. I would like to know more.

smalltime said:
Randy I plumbed my tank with sch 80 and yes it looks cooler but you how often are you going to look at it? Everardo told me about the irrigation supply off 91 across from home depot. They had all my fittings there. They carry a good inventory of 1 inch and 1.5
You also have to buy pipe 10 feet at a time or pay outrages cost per foot

I have some 1 inch fittings and a couple 3/4 if you want them....free lmk
(15 fittings total)
Click to expand...
Smalltime,
Is this place you are talking about of McKinley? I need to go take a look at that. Thanks for the offer on the parts. I will keep that in mind.

Ian said:
MArk is right, I bought the pipe and fittings from usplastics.com.

Grey sch. 40 was actually pretty inexpensive...
Click to expand...
Ian,
Are you talking about the same place as smalltime? I am really interested in this.

I made some progress this weekend. But, I actually had to go backwards to go forward. I will post some more tonight. I need to upload pictures.

I know I am going slow, but this project is turning into more than the tank. I demoed the fireplace this week. Just a little teaser for the posts to come.

I do think I will get the tank on the stand this week by Wednesday. I have to talk to my glass subcontractor to see if I can get his suction cups. Hopefully I can. I know that moving the tank is going to be tough.
 
OK here is an update. Sorry I have been so slow with this.....

So last week I demoed my fireplace surround. Remember, I am going to incorporate the fireplace, a window seat with storage, a bourbon and wine bar, and a desk all into the overall presentation of the tank. This will be a total make over of the room to match.

So, here are a couple of pictures of the fireplace demo.
picture.php


Then, Saturday, I started thinking about my plumbing on the tank. So, I measured the overflow and the first challenge came up!

I ordered the overflow to be 6" front to back. LeeMar made it 6 clear inches.... That meant it was actually 6 1/2" outside of the tank.

Now this normally would not be a problem, but, I started building the top well in advance of the tank being done. I planned the tank to be 6" off of the wall. Well, this just made my day!!!!

So, because the top was done (So I thought) I decided to cut the wall to basically recess the overflow box 1/2" into the wall.
 
So, I measured the tank and then decided to make the recess a bit oversized.
I started measuring the wall.
picture.php

I had to use the laser to layout.
picture.php

Layout complete.
picture.php

Cut complete.....
picture.php

I then backed the hole with plywood.
Cut the black PLAM to size
Made a frame for my wife to paint
And...... tada..... A 1/2" deep recess.
picture.php
 
Now for the killer part....

When I was doing all of the layout, I realized that my brackets were going to be too close to get the plumbing in without a lot of goofing around.

So, I decided to take the top apart and cut the slots bigger and then move the brackets farther apart. This took the whole morning....

The end result:
picture.php


So, now there is plenty of space for the plumbing.
The brackets are now 44" apart.

Remember, my plan is to do a Bean animal overflow with 1 1/2" plumbing.

The box is set up with one hole on each end and one hole in the bottom
 
The tank is on the stand. Pics later. 5 guys. 4 to lift. 1 to move stuff out of the way as needed.

Kept it in the pallet until the front door. Rolled it in a carpet dolly. Then lifted and brought it in.

I will post pics tonight.
 
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